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Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJ.C. Penney via APJ.C. Penney plans to add new price tags or signs for more than half its merchandise to show customers how much they’re saving by shopping at the midpriced chain.

NEW YORK — J.C. Penney is bringing back sales.

The struggling department-store chain this week will begin adding some of the hundreds of sales
it ditched last year, in hopes of luring back shoppers who were turned off when the discounts
disappeared.

Penney also plans to add new price tags or signs for more than half its merchandise to show
customers how much they’re saving by shopping at the midprice chain — a strategy used by a few
other retailers such as the home-decor chain Crate and Barrel and the company that owns T.J. Maxx,
HomeGoods and Marshalls. For store-branded items such as Arizona, J.C. Penney will show a
comparison of prices from competitors.

The moves are a departure for J.C. Penney on the eve of the one-year anniversary of when it
vowed to almost completely get rid of the sales that Americans covet but that cut into a store’s
profits. The idea was to offer everyday low prices that customers could count on rather than the
nearly 600 fleeting discounts, coupons and sales it once offered.

The bold plan has been watched closely by others in the retail industry, which is notorious for
offering deep discounts to draw shoppers. But so far the experiment has served as a cautionary tale
of how difficult it is to change shoppers’ habits: J.C. Penney next month is expected to report its
fourth consecutive quarter of big sales drops and profit losses. After losing more than half of its
value, J.C. Penney stock is trading at $19.22. And the company’s credit ratings are in junk
status.

CEO Ron Johnson, who rolled out the pricing plan shortly after taking the top job in November
2011, said last week that the latest moves are not a deviation from his strategy but rather an “
evolution.”

“Our sales have gone backward a little more than we expected, but that doesn’t change the vision
or the strategy,” said Johnson, who previously masterminded Apple Inc.’s retail stores and Target
Corp.’s cheap-chic fashion strategy. “We made changes, and we learned an incredible amount. That is
what’s informing our tactics as we go forward.”

But critics say that Johnson is backpedaling. Walter Loeb, a New York-based retail consultant,
said Johnson “is now realizing that he has to be more promotional to attract shoppers.”

The pricing strategy has been a key part of Johnson’s plan to reinvent J.C. Penney from the
ground up, which also included adding hip new brands such as Joe Fresh and replacing racks of
clothing with small shops-within-stores by 2015. But this isn’t the first time the plan has been
tweaked.

The pricing plan, which was rolled out in February 2012, entailed permanently slashing prices on
everything in the store by 40 percent. Instead of the 600 or so sales and coupons, Penney would
hold just 12 monthlong sales events on some merchandise. And there would be periodic clearance
events throughout the year.

But the plan wasn’t well-received on Wall Street or Main Street, so six months after launching
it, Johnson ditched the monthlong sales, saying that they were too confusing to shoppers.

“I still believe that the customer knows the right price, but they want help,” Johnson said.

J.C. Penney declined to say how many sales events it will offer, citing competitive reasons. But
the company says the figure will be well below the nearly 600 that it used to offer.